The “Motown Phenom”, Kevin Lee and “Raging” Al Iaquinta face off for the second time in the octagon this Saturday almost 5 years on from their original bout. Iaquinta came out on top on that occasion via unanimous decision against a lesser experienced Lee making his UFC debut. Lee and Iaquinta both have had impressive win streaks in recent times with both streaks being broken by the champion Nurmagomedov and Ferguson respectively. Iaquinta has not fought since going the distance with Khabib and Lee has picked up a win, following his loss to Ferguson against a fighter with arguably the most impressive highlight reel in MMA, by beating Edson Barboza. In what will be the last ever UFC on Fox, we get to see these two men go at it again.
The first meeting of these two fighters took place back on Feb 1st 2014 with Lee making his debut in the UFC. He was dropped by Iaquinta in the first round and managed to recover. This durability is something we have seen from Lee a lot seeing it again in the Mustafaev fight. The Barboza fight is another prime example of this where Lee performed one of the finest chicken dances seen in the octagon to date after getting cracked with a spinning head kick from Barboza. Lee finds most of his success on the ground and consistently manages to position himself for a rear naked choke. Iaquintas takedown defense is superb however with Lee only managing 1 takedown with several attempts being stuffed in their first exchange and not to mention his stellar performance against Nurmagomedov. One thing to remember from that first exchange however is that the one takedown that Lee secured led to, you guessed it, a near submission via a rear naked choke. If the fight stays on the feet I have to give the edge to Ragin’ Al. He has shown he has terrific combinations stopping Ross Pearson, Joe Lauzon and Diego Sanchez, all by TKO or KO and exposing the chin of Khabib. Even when we look back to the first fight it was the combinations Iaquinta threw and the experience he had in the octagon that won him the fight.
This is a great main event too as a farewell to UFC on Fox. Iaquinta is coming off a loss against the Dagestani grappler Nurmagomedov and Lee having had a tough year with the passing of his long time coach and also an interim title fight loss, both fighters will be looking to make a statement here. If Al can keep this fight standing, given how durable Lee is I dont see him being able to put him away but I can see him getting a decision win on the night. My pick however has to go for Kevin Lee to win. I believe “The Motown Phenom” has grown more as a fighter since 2014. This is down to his activity level having had 12 fights since he last met Iaquinta, with Iaquinta only stepping foot inside the octagon a further 7 times. Lee has proven himself to be able to take down any fighter in the division and having had more experience in 5 round fights I find it hard to imagine Al Iaquinta being able to stop Lee taking him down for the duration.
Verdict: Kevin Lee
The MMA Times 